I was playing Wintergrasp tonight, Christmas Eve, while waiting for my young son to fall asleep. The Horde was putting up great resistance down south, and I was outnumbered at Westspark, which meant I was dying. A lot. Two pallys and two rogues against a warlock and a death knight? Yeah. We lost Westspark, but we won the battle — while we were contesting the workshops, a catapult zerg managed to take down the walls and breach the inner keep. I was flying off to collect some embers from the Cauldron of Flames when I got a whisper from a level 1 gnome, thanking me for a good game but lamenting that it was over so soon.

I admit, this took me by surprise.

It took me even more by surprise that I actually knew the Horde rogue in question, since she had killed me several times in that battle — and in earlier ones, too. I don’t know all the Horde players on Durotan, but I know a few, and Rokasa was one of them. We had a great conversation about PvP and Wintergrasp and how excited we both are to play goblins in Cataclysm, and after a few minutes she excused herself to go back to playing in Wintergrasp.

I couldn’t help but think of the Christmas Truce of 1914, when German and British troops set aside their differences and celebrated Christmas together, an event which happened repeatedly throughout World War I.

I know why Blizzard set up the factions of Warcraft the way they did, and why inter-faction communication will likely never be possible. Being able to talk to people means you can find common ground with them, and common ground between the Horde and Alliance isn’t in the best interests of the Warcraft game.

But it’s Christmas. And where there’s a will, there’s a way.

It was really nice to have a conversation with an opponent and be reminded about how we’re all just people who enjoy playing this crazy game. We may represent the Alliance or the Horde, but we’re all people.

So if you find yourself PvPing this Christmas Day, consider observing a Christmas Truce of your own. Roll a level 1 alt and talk to the people you fight across the trenches, the ones you normally see with red over their heads.

3 responses to “The Christmas Truce”

True. It also gives you more ways to insult each other, as I regrettably found out recently after a grueling 45-minute arena match (I guess everyone loses if time expires?) against a holy pally / arms warrior. We dropped the warrior but could not kill the pally due to a confluence of a couple lucky things in his favor (and a degree of skill, I’m sure).

A few minutes after the game was over I was whispered by a lvl 1 named Yousuckballs who proceeded to berate both me and my partner with abusive language about how much we sucked, should find new partners, etc. I didn’t respond to his tirade (b/c he wins then) or ignore him (he also wins), but it struck me the lengths people will go to sometimes to be insulting.

The knife cuts both ways, unfortunately, but I’ll take your story and try to surgically graft it onto my brain over my experience since it was so much nicer!